United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southwestern Region tp-r3-16-26

Rehabilitation and Restoration

An IWM program for invasive plants can be an important component for implementing rehabilitation or restoration. Rehabilitation is defined as short-term mitigation to ensure minimum site stability and functionality. Rehabilitation can be facilitated by actions to prevent or limit disturbance such as site preparation and seeding of non-native vegetation for soil stabilization, mulching disturbed sites with straw or chipped wood, construction of straw, rock or log dams in small, eroding tributaries, and placement of logs to catch sediment on hill slopes.

In contrast to rehabilitation, restoration has the long-term objective of re-establishing biotic integrity of a damaged ecosystem in terms of pre-existing species composition and community structure. Since disturbed conditions encourage many invasive species, improvement of site condition can help prevent establishment of invasive populations and reduce long-term ecosystem impacts. Terrestrial invasive species management in these cases may include re-seeding with native species to increase competition or using IWM practices such as pesticide application or biocontrol agents to minimize or control invasive weed infestations. Revegetation may also involve topsoil replacement, fertilizing, and weed-free mulching. Although restoration efforts have common elements, each site should be treated as unique. Therefore, work must be guided by site-specific considerations and analysis. The results of monitoring should always be used to assess the effectiveness of restoration actions.

Under FSM 2020 interim direction, the goal of ecological restoration is to reestablish and retain the resilience of NFS lands and associated resources to achieve sustainable management and provide a broad range of ecosystem services. However, it should be anticipated that even the best restoration efforts may not return a site or ecosystem to its desired condition since invasive species can overwhelm or interfere with natural processes associated with ecosystem recovery. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent or control invasive species before rehabilitation or restoration is required.

Burned Area Emergency Response

Provisions in the Forest Service’s Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program may be used to rehabilitate burned areas by minimizing threats to life or property resulting from the effects of a fire or by stabilizing and preventing unacceptable degradation to natural and cultural resources (see FSM CHAPTER 2520 - WATERSHED PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT). Sanitary regulations in BAER should always be followed to prevent introduction of weed seed and other weed propagules in seed, straw, and other plant or construction materials after major fires. Emergency response or emergency stabilization activities such as broadcast-seeding of grasses (usually by aircraft) may be authorized through BAER. BAER funds may be used for invasive species detection surveys and, if warranted, rapid response actions within the first year following fire containment (FSM 2523.2). Invasive species detection, monitoring, treatment, re-treatment, or maintenance beyond the first year must be funded with other program appropriations. However, BAER funding cannot be used to treat pre-existing weeds.

BAER teams and local resource managers should incorporate re-establishment of native or desired non-native species into post-fire planning. Sites where potential seed-bearing materials (hay, straw, mulch, etc.) have been applied for erosion control should be monitored and treated when weeds are found. Incidents where invasive plant establishment is suspected of being the result of weed seed contamination in materials used for erosion control should be documented as part of the invasive plant inventory and reported to BAER coordinators and to the Regional Invasive Species/Pesticide Coordinator. For contracted projects, contract specifications should require the contractor to use weed-free materials (seed, mulch, etc.) and maintain the project site as weed-free for a specified time. Contractors should not be allowed to skip weed control to save time on a project. Interim direction on BAER may be found at FSM 2523. Guidance on BAER is found at http://www.fs.fed.us/biology/watershed/burnareas/index.html. BAER coordinators at the forest or Regional Office level should be contacted for further information on BAER.

Seeding

Seeding disturbed areas is often necessary to prevent erosion and provide cover for successful establishment of native species. Following ground-disturbing activities, bare soil may need to be seeded depending on erosion potential of the site and the potential for timely natural regeneration. Prior to seeding, eroded areas should be stabilized by using Forest Service-approved erosion control measures such as mulching, waterbars, etc. The soil in areas to be seeded should have a roughened condition favorable to the retention and germination of seed (usually ½ inch of loose surface soil). Seeding generally should occur within seven days of final disturbance if possible and should not be done during extremely windy or rainy weather. Seed should not be applied to frozen ground. Areas that do not achieve adequate cover with seeding may require additional scarification, fertilizing, and/or mulching before reseeding. Range specialists or vegetation ecologists may be consulted in setting up seeding projects.

Appropriate seed mixes and procedures for seeding sites may be determined by consulting a forest’s seed mix or local seeding guidelines. Policy in FSM 2070.3 promotes the use of native plants in rehabilitation and restoration when practicable. Native seed collected locally may be used where available and cost effective. Noxious weed lists of County, State, or Federal agencies should be checked to determine what potential weed seed may be found in a proposed seed mix. In some cases (e.g., small disturbed sites), the need for seeding should be weighed against the possibility of contamination in certified seed by seed of common or invasive weed species that heretofore have not been included on noxious weed lists. At the very least, sites where seeding has occurred should be monitored and treated when invasive weeds are found. Incidents where invasive plant establishment is suspected of being the result of contamination in seed mixtures used for planting should be documented as part of the invasive plant inventory and reported to the Regional Invasive Species/Pesticide Coordinator.

Prior to seeding, a certified seed laboratory should test each seed mix lot for purity, viability, and noxious weed seed according to Association of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA) standards. If AOSA testing is impractical, State or regionally-certified weed-free seed should be used. USDA’s list of State Noxious-Weed Seed Requirements Recognized in the Administration of the Federal Seed Act (http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRD3317318) should be followed by the seed laboratory as part of the testing procedure. Requirements for all 50 States in the USDA list should be followed by the laboratory in testing seed lots for noxious weed seed. Seed being used by project contractors should be tested and the results reported to respective forest and district invasive species coordinators.

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